Deprecated: mysql_connect(): The mysql extension is deprecated and will be removed in the future: use mysqli or PDO instead in /home/healthya/public_html/wp-includes/wp-db.php on line 1633How do you build a healthy city? Copenhagen reveals its secrets – Healthy Advice 4 You

Maybe its the Viking heritage. There is an icy open-air pool in the waters of Copenhagens harbour, and although it is mid-winter Danes still jump in every day. On the front cover of the citys health plan, a lean older man is pictured climbing out, dripping, his mouth open in a shout that could be horror or pleasure. Enjoy life, Copenhageners, urges the caption.

Its not every Copenhagener who wants to take strenuous exercise in cold water either for fun or to get fit. But the packed bike lanes of the Danish capital, even at this sometimes subzero time of year, are testimony to the success of a city that is aspiring to be one of the healthiest in the world. Copenhagen consistently sits at the very top of the UNs happiness index and is one of the star performers in the Healthy Cities initiative of the World Health Organisation, which, almost unknown and unsung, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The initiative was the idea of a group of individuals inspired by the Alma Ata Declaration of 1978, which was about elevating the status of primary care and public health in a world where everybody equated healthcare with hospital treatment after you got ill.

Cities do, of course, spawn in response to the need for people to have roofs over their heads; somewhere to eat and sleep within striking distance of their job. Whether its the slums of Nairobi or the skyscrapers of Tokyo, the imperative has always been to pack in more people where their talents or labour are needed. Their health, closely related to the environment in which they live, has never really figured. Only recently have we realised the ills we are reaping.

Some of our cities have notorious food deserts, with acres of housing and only takeaways and small grocery stores selling tinned and packaged foods, sugary buns, sweets, crisps and colas. It is hard to get an apple, but not a burger or chips. Green lungs parks and gardens are a historic feature of London, but some cities are barely walkable because of the traffic fumes, while cycling is dangerous on roads shared with juggernauts.

Obesity and its related ills heart disease, diabetes and cancer have thrived in these cities. Only recently have we begun to realise that fundamental social and cultural change will be needed to alter their relentless upward trajectory. City mayors have the power to kickstart this, as Michael Bloomberg showed in his high-profile interventions while mayor of New York. He cut greenhouse gas emissions and planted trees, and although he lost in court when he tried to ban sales of super-sized super-sugary soft drinks in 2012, the attempt certainly got people talking.

Meik Wiking concurs. The chief exec of the Happiness Research Institute wants to walk around the lakes in central Copenhagen as we talk about the links between health and happiness. He diverts for a few metres down a main street. What I wanted to show you is over there, he says, gesticulating to the far side and what looks like a drunken green bin, tilted towards the road at an angle. Its for cyclists. Everybody likes to cycle or walk with coffee, he says. Now theyve designed it so it is easy for cyclists to throw their garbage when they are done. At the edge of the cycle lane, where bikes have to stop for a red light, is a raised platform where riders can rest their foot without getting off the saddle. When it snows, the city clears the bike lanes before it clears the car routes.

Small things, but significant, says Wiking. Copenhagen is not a great city in terms of monuments or attractions, but I think its a great city in terms of convenience, and it isa people-centred city.

Copenhagen has hit on a truth. We dont do what we ought to do for our health we do what we enjoy or what makes our lives easiest. The drop-out rate after the New Year surge in gym memberships is surely clear evidence of that.

Danes, as it happens, do not seem to like being told what to do. Schjnning pulls a face when I ask about laws banning smoking in public places. There is a ban on indoor and workplace smoking, but with exceptions for bars below a certain size, for instance. Some bars have adjusted their floor space to make sure they are small enough for smoking to be permitted. Copenhagen offers smoking cessation courses to anyone who comes to a health clinic, but the health authority cant take a hard line on those who smoke in a childrens playground. There are notices that politely ask you not to smoke, but no penalty.

Across the political spectrum in Denmark, banning smoking is very politicised. It has become almost a human right to smoke, says Schjnning. It is very black and white that the state should not tell you whether or not to smoke. The same goes for alcohol, which is really entrenched in the culture in Denmark. Young people in Denmark hold the European record for drinking. It is very difficult to limit it [smoking] because it is your personal freedom, she says, with mock emphasis, no matter how much the public health academics and professionals can demonstrate that smoking is the biggest killer known.

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